“Because he has been working on it forever,” said Georgie. “Didn’t you already take out an extra loan for one extension already?”
“Your mother’s so proud of you, by the way,” said Evie, looking up from the yarn she’d been trying to hook onto her knitting needles ever since Nate had taken a seat twenty-eight, now twenty-nine, minutes ago. “Not for the extra loan bit. For the finally completing it bit.”
“Oh, so you did complete it?” said Barb. “That’s wonderful.”
“Not if you’re in huge financial debt now,” said Lottie with a puckered frown. “I hear people get into serious debt when they keep taking extensions. ABT, they call it. All but the dissertation.”
“Yep. Know what ABT stands for. But as Evie already pointed out, Ihavecompleted my dissertation and graduated from my PhDprogram, and I actually have a great job I’m really looking forward to because of it, so... the meeting.” Nate clicked his pen and held it over the notebook Georgie had handed him for the minutes. “I think I saw something about—”
“Does that mean you’ll be coming home more often now?” asked Gus, licking cinnamon roll frosting off his thumb.
“Of course.” Nate shrugged. “Hopefully. I mean, I am starting a new college teaching position further north in the fall, so it’s not like I’m going to have a ton of free time once the school year starts up.”
“Why didn’t you take a teaching position closer to home?” said Georgie. “Tennessee has colleges.”
“And single girls,” said Barb in a sing-songy voice.
Yeah, well, Tennessee also had his dad. Nate sighed, keeping that to himself. Nobody needed to know part of the reason he left Tennessee in the first place was to put plenty of distance between himself and the stranger who suddenly wanted permission to step back into his life.
The only person Nate had ever confided in when it came to his dad was his mentor. And now that his mentor was gone, looked like his days of confiding were gone too.
“So, the meeting.” Nate clicked his pen again. “I see a Dominoes Dance on the agenda. That seems like a good place to start.” And end.
“Nate’s right,” Gus said, looking down at the agenda Georgie had passed out to everyone thirty-one, now thirty-two, minutes ago. “We need to get started. Those chickens and goats ain’t gonna feed themselves. Actually, the goats probably will.”
“We’ll circle back to your squash in a bit,” Georgie said, pointing at Barb.
“Only if someone motions to add it to the agenda,” said Lottie, pointing at Georgie. “Not to step on your toes, but I just want to remind the group how important it is that we stick to the agenda.” Her eyes landed on Nate. “The Dominoes Dance is number three. Things turn into chaos when we don’t stick to the agenda.”
“Thank you,” Georgie said, her mouth clamping in a tight smilethat probably mirrored Nate’s. Especially when Lottie continued talking.
“It’s just that I remember this one meeting—this was back when I was president of the PTA in my daughter’s school district in Franklin, one of the most active and thriving PTAs in all of middle Tennessee, including Nashville, but that’s neither here nor there. No, the reason I bring it up is I’ll never forget this one meeting we had when I couldn’t attend. What happened was the group skipped an item on the agenda, saying they’d come back to it. Well, guess what happened?” Lottie paused to meet everyone’s gaze one by one.
Before she made it to Nate, he ended the suspense. “They never got back to it.”
“They never got back to it,” she said as if Nate hadn’t said anything. “Never. It didn’t even get added to the next meeting’s agenda. To this day it’s out there floating in the universe of lost agenda items.”
“Well, I certainly wouldn’t ever let that happen in one ofmymeetings,” Georgie said, straightening her green cardigan sweater over her green striped blouse. “Not when we have so many important topics to cover. Speaking of which, does everyone approve the current agenda for today’s meeting?”
Heads nodded and she pointed out Nate. “Great. Now does everyone approve the minutes from last meeting?” More head bobs and nods. “Excellent.” She pointed at Nate again.
Was he supposed to be writing something every time she pointed? He’d never taken meeting minutes before.
“Now on to the first item on the agenda. Snow removal.” Georgie lifted her gaze over her green reading glasses toward Lottie. “I believe you submitted this topic.”
“I certainly did. Absolutely. We need to get on top of thisnowso it won’t be a problem later.”
“And how do you suggest we get on top of snow removal when we’re one week into June in Tennessee, Lottie?” Georgie’s tone sounded friendly despite the tight smile.
“Well...” Lottie lifted her palms and eyebrows, making another slow circle of eye contact with every single member. “Isn’t that the point of our committee? To figure these things out together? I mean, that’s how my PTA operated back in Franklin, and I can tell you from personal experience that it was a very effective form of operation. You don’t become the most active and thriving PTA in all of middle Tennessee, including Nashville, without being effective.”
Georgie’s mouth opened with what was sure to be a lengthy rebuttal, so Nate jumped in first. “I’ll make a note to look further into the logistics of snow removal, so we can follow up with what we learn at the next meeting.” In the meantime, he’d pray there was never a next meeting.
“Thank you,” breathed out Lottie as she lifted her hands in awas that so hard?gesture.
The fire in Georgie’s eyes suggested it was hard. Very hard.
“Item number two?” Nate said, clicking his pen a few times.
